Heavy Burdens
by Sazuka57
Summary: Warning: Suicidal tendencies mentioned. During their training regimen, Papyrus has noticed that Alphys was acting in a way that was much too reminiscent of his brother. He's worried, but...he doesn't want to shoulder the responsibility.


**Heavy Burdens**

Papyrus was _exhausted_.

Not physically exhausted, but rather mentally.

He opened the front door of his house and stumbled inside, carelessly shutting the door behind him with his foot. He had just returned from his training with Alphys, who had just confessed to Undyne her true feelings for the warrior fish and then was drafted into an intense, motivational workout that he was to coach her through.

They never finished all of their laps.

Not that he thought that they would, really. That many laps were too much for a beginner who had never done any major exercise before. Still, he was pretty sure that…this was most likely going to be their first and last session together.

Papyrus sighed as he plopped down on the couch. He reached for the remote and turned on the TV, then proceeded to absentmindedly flip through the channels until something caught his eye. His mind wasn't on the TV, however, as he kept thinking about Alphys.

It was in the way she acted. The way she talked to him. He had seen it so many times before in his brother. The tired slouch that never left. The defeated look that would cross his face momentarily. The hopelessness hiding in his eye sockets at the end of the day. The look of trapped panic on his face when something didn't go the way he wanted it to…

…She gave him a phone charm. He didn't want it—didn't need it—but she insisted. In case she didn't see him tomorrow, she had said.

Papyrus sighed and put his head in his hands. He knew what this meant. His brother tried doing that more than once, and it took Papyrus a long time before he could accept things from Sans again without overthinking and fretting over it in silence.

He sighed deeply and ran his hands over his skull. Alphys needed help, but…

…he didn't want to be the one to do it.

It wasn't that he didn't value Alphys—he did. He didn't know her as well as Undyne did, but she was important to Undyne, and that made her important to him, too. She needed help, and if it was just about anything else, he would have gladly volunteered to do it, but this…

…Sans needed him.

Sans could be too much at times, too. He remembered the days where he did nothing but care for Sans. He talked to him about happy things almost nonstop, dropped everything to hear what he had to say. He did his best to make his brother feel needed and validated, and checked in on him during whatever breaks he had. He remembered how on the especially bad days, he would sometimes resort to shadowing Sans to make sure that his brother didn't do anything…stupid.

And Sans, for whatever reason, was having some very bad days recently. Nothing as bad as before, but it came close.

Papyrus sighed heavily. He didn't think he could handle caring for both Sans and Alphys, and…

…He didn't want to.

He made an angry noise and threw his hands up before bringing them back down and covering his face again. He felt ashamed. He felt guilty. These were people who needed help, and, as a monster aspiring to join the royal guard, he should help everyone in need.

But this…

This was too much responsibility. He didn't think his mental fortitude could hold if he looked out for the two of them at the same time. Not to mention that if he did split his time between them, he wouldn't be able to give either of them his full efforts, and if something happened to either of them because of that…

…He wouldn't forgive himself.

He sighed and looked around the room. He saw his brother's sock on the floor and smiled fondly. He looked down at his hands and decided that he needed to take action.

He pulled out his phone and looked at his contacts list. Should he call Alphys and check up on her? No, that might set her more on edge, especially since he wasn't really willing to follow through. Sans? Of course not. Sans didn't need someone else to help drive him to the edge. Not only that, but Papyrus had a theory that Sans and Alphys already knew each other, somehow. They might be good for each other once Alphys had calmed down some, maybe. Grillby was out of the question, as he didn't really know Alphys. Undyne, then? It would be a good choice, but she tended to…overreact, and if that happened, it wouldn't bode well for Alphys' mental state…

Papyrus stared at the last number and almost slapped himself. Of course, the human was the right choice. They were kind. They were gentle. They were understanding and not judgmental. They would be the perfect person to help Alphys out.

He hoped.

Should he tell them the whole thing, or let them find out for themself? He mulled it over for a moment before deciding to let the human find out for themselves. That way, it would look as though the human had gone to check up on Alphys out of their own concern, and not because he sent them.

He dialed the number, and the human, bless their kind soul, answered on the third ring.

"AH, IF IT ISNT MY GOOD FRIEND, WHO TRUSTS ME," he greeted awkwardly. He was always so awkward when it came to manipulating people, "THIS IS PAPYRUS. YOUR ALSO MUTUAL FRIEND."

The human replied warmly to him and asked about the training.

"ALPHYS AND I FINISHED OUR TRAINING EARLY….VERY EARLY. SO I SENT HER HOME."

The human exclaimed if everything was okay and asked if Alphys was hurt. He quickly assured the human that Alphys was alright and they were relieved to hear it. They asked him if he needed anything, and he said yes.

"I FEEL STRONGLY AND FOR NO APPARENT REASON, YOU SHOULD ALSO GO…THERE."

The human asked where, and he replied to Alphys' home, of course. The human then asked why.

"I HAVE ONLY GOOD FEELINGS ABOUT THIS." He answered, wincing at how bad of an answer it was. He left the human confused, but on their way to Alphys' lab, so he figured it was a mission accomplished. He sighed and put his phone away, going back to flipping channels.

His mind wandered after a while, however, and he couldn't help but wonder if he made the right decision. He felt very guilty and very worried, and it made him feel miserable. He looked at the clock and then back at his phone. He hoped that either the human or Alphys would call, but he wasn't counting on it.

It just meant that he wasn't going to get much sleep that night.

The front door opened, and he scrambled to sit up straight and look interested in the TV. Sans walked in and flashed him the usual smile.

"'Sup bro?" He greeted, "you ready for story time?"

He glanced at the clock and realized how late it was. Sans noticed him doing so and snickered.

"What, was the rerun that good?"

"I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW THAT I WAS THINKING OF THE EXCERSIZE ROUTINE I AM GOING TO PUT ALPHYS ON." He felt a twinge of guilt. He couldn't fool anyone, except his brother. And he was taking advantage of that fact, even after they'd promised to be more honest with each other.

"Oh, that sounds cool."

"OF COURSE IT DOES. THE ROUTINE WILL BE NOTHING SHORT OF AMAZING."

"I'm sure it will be," Sans sat next to him on the couch. The guilt of lying to his brother was eating Papyrus up, though, and he stood up and made a show of stretching.

"I'M GOING TO GET READY FOR BED. THEN, STORY TIME!"

"Sure," Sans replied, reaching for the remote. Papyrus did his best to walk slowly and uncaringly to the stairs, and bound up them with as much energy as he could muster. Before he reached the top step, Sans called out to him.

"Hey, bro?" Sans turned halfway around on the couch to face him.

"YES?"

"Love you," Sans replied, "You're the best around."

Papyrus felt like he could cry. Instead, he raced down the steps and swept his brother into a bone crushing hug. Sans made a startled noise at first, before chuckling and returning the hug. Papyrus felt like a weight was lifted off of his soul, which made him feel infinitely better than what he had felt in the last few hours.

"Dunno what I'd do without you, bro," Sans mumbled and, and Papyrus hugged his brother tighter.

"AND I WOULDN'T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITHOUT YOU EITHER," he replied, and was ecstatic when Sans hugged him tighter as well.

They stayed like that for a few moments before Sans asked to be put down. Papyrus squeezed his brother before he put him down and ran back up the stairs, grinning happily.

He slammed the door to his bedroom behind him and leaned against it. He pulled his phone out and looked at it and saw that there were no new updates. He found that he didn't mind as much as a little earlier, though he would call in the morning if there was nothing new by then.

He wasn't worried though. He felt as though everything would work out, like it always did. He was the Great Papyrus, after all, and no down was too low for him to recover from. After all, he still had his brother and friends, and with them behind him, he could weather any bad storm.

And that filled him with hope.


End file.
